


Call me back

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 10:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8841592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Let's pretend it a real TV show, it's on TLC. Regina's parents have to pick between 3 guys whom Regina should end up with. R goes on dates with all of them to see which one she like best, one of the guys introduces Regina to one of his friends, Emma.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've changed a few details of the original idea but still the main point stays the same. Hope you like the outcome of this prompt and comments are always very very very much appreciated ^^

“So, come here often?”

Regina refrained her thirst to growl at the man in front of her by taking a sip of her drink, barely hiding a grimace as she realized that the supposed-to-be cold beverage was now lukewarm due to the not-so-subtle spotlights the crew of camera-men and co from “Choose your destiny” had put around the two of them. Emitting what she expected was a smile kind enough to appease the public and the bosses behind the cameras, she rested her right hand on her cheek, her nails grazing her skin in a way she had already read on her twitter feed that made her look distant and aloof; something she found keen to do after the first minutes of what it had been sold by publicists as the “date that would bring Regina Mills to her knees.”

Which, mind you, wasn’t going to happen even if the dark-haired man dressed in far too many leather seemed to only be able to think about considering the very obvious lewd glances he was throwing at her above the rim of his own drink. Drink that she already could sense its stink from the other side of the small glass table the two were seated at and that she felt already quite repulsed to it.

As the date, -Killian something? She hadn’t really been listening when they had been hastily presented a few minutes before the cameras had started to roll- took that sound as the signal he needed to drone about his interests, Regina settled both of her hands on the surface of the table, nails clinking against it, back as stiff as humanly possible and mind already counting the minutes until they would end up the scene and so her time with this man -was he wearing eyeliner? Not that she had a problem with a man who preferred to wear make-up but the look seemed… broody, to say the least- finished.

A part of her, the rebel part, the one her father had loved as her mother had abhorred, wondered why she didn’t walk away from the fanfare and fake stories the show was feeding on whoever that may be seeing her at this pitiful idea. Another part, the one that could be as cold and scheming as her mother herself, knew she really didn’t have so many options; her mother’s words were law on certain parts of the city and so when she had put her under the spotlight of the crew of “Choose your destiny” and under Mr. Gold’s own surveillance Regina had known that she was as good as chained to the show until she either caved in or money ceased to come in.

The idea behind the show was fairly simple; a woman, normally rich enough to draw attention with a reputation apparently unbreakable enough for viewers to dream to discover a scandal while watching the show, and three suitors, each one as fake as the rest, who pretended to be the knight in shining armors for the women until they either decided that they preferred to be screwing another girl or the spotlights were off. The show itself wasn’t one of the few Regina liked to see and if it hadn’t been because she already knew her mother wanted to test her resolve to remain unmarried after the whole Leopold’s fiasco and so she had come prepared to the set up her mother had prepared for her a couple of months ago, she would have been blindsided by it.

And so there she was, a few months after the dinner date that had settled the deal and with the second suitor in front of her. A man she had never met before and whom she had the suspicion she would never have wanted to either way.

Sighing loudly, she looked back at him, her gaze cold enough for him to stutter in the middle of what appeared to be a list of her past ex-girlfriends and look at her confusedly, apparently not realizing that she was in fact not interested in the least considering how quick he kept talking about himself.

“And so I decided to…”

Regina closed her eyes for a second before casting a frozen smile, one she had used hundredths of times before and knew it would look realistic enough for the numbers to don’t drop. Something she didn’t care about in the slightest but her mother, apparently, did.

“Money is power Regina; you know that” She had said all those months back. “After you broke with Leopold White the deal we had already discussed between our networks was off, we need a fresh face on “Choose your destiny” and what better than you, dear? The amount of money that alone will bring to us will probably make Leopold reconsider the deal.”

“I’m not a possession you can use and throw away, mother.” Regina had whispered as she tried to look collected and poised in the restaurant her mother had asked her to meet her. Cora had smiled at her the same cold smile she herself was now sporting and Regina knew she hadn’t very much choice at all.

33 years and still tied to her mother. That alone was pathetic enough for her fingers to close tightly around the glass, the feeling of pain enough to make her blink away the moment she felt Killian moving away from her, spotlights and camera’s already done for the moment.

“I would say that it has been a pleasure to meet you, love, but I think you don’t think the same, do you?”

Killian’s accent seemed to become duller as the cameras were off, the voices of the crew around them floating towards where they stood. Regina didn’t bother to say anything but shot a meaningful enough look that had the man chuckling on his spot.

“Figures. This kind of things are tiring on their own way; you don’t seem comfortable enough.”

“What tells you that?” Regina finally turned towards him, a changeling brow arcing as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, the crisp white blouse they had given her -after she had been specific on her aversion to the flowery dresses they had first told her they needed her to wear- cold under her fingers.

She was still her mother’s daughter after all, she had known how to lie even before starting to talk.

“That you don’t follow the rules.” He answered with a chuckle, his whole demeanor wasn’t as sexually charged as before but it still made Regina narrow her eyes for a second, enough for him to hold up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I won’t say a thing. Except one more secret if you let me.”

“I don’t.”

It was futile of course, Killian was already opening his mouth, his voice like venom when his words reached Regina. “Does your mother know that the perfect Regina Mills is a dyke?”

Regina closed her jaw and raised her chin at the implication as cold sweat covered the base of her neck, fury already emerging while she took a step towards Killian, careful enough to not be seen by any camera at the moment, knowing that if they were indeed caught the photos of her conversation with the sorry version of a man she had in front of her would end up on twitter under fake captions her mother would probably feel way too proud about.

“Does anyone know how much of an alcoholic you are?” She spitted, only to have the man chuckle to himself, a careful side-glance to the people around them before he, too, lowered his voice.

“So you say that it’s true.”

“I’m saying that you don’t know what you are talking about.”

The two of them stared at each other, not wanting to give in, until Killian sighed dramatically, the leather of the vest he had appeared wearing on glowing under the few lights of the look-alike terrace the crew had created for the scene. Regina sniffed and curled her upper lip, eyes burning with rage as she waited for the man to make another move.

“Ok then.” He finally said with that awful smirk on his lips. “Prove it for me then. I have a friend. She will be here once we are finished for the day. I will introduce you both.”

“I’m not one of your stupid girls, Killian, try blackmailing another one because with me is not going to happen.” Regina didn’t even bother to hide her wrath anymore, her eyes glinting with fury as she took one last step towards the man, the high-heels she wore tall enough to help her gain some leverage over the dark-haired man. The way Killian’s eyes seemed to flicker at the difference between their heights was enough to assure her she had done the right thing.

“Wouldn’t be worse if I went to Leopold White and told him a juicy story about the woman he was supposed to marry?”

Regina weighed her options; she didn’t know what Killian may know, about Daniel, or Mal, it didn’t matter at the end though and she knew she really didn’t have that much of an option.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Prove to me that you aren’t into girls, I will admit my defeat and we will never talk about this ever again.”

And that had been the reason she had gotten to meet Emma Swan, blonde, tall, green-eyed, with a smile that could illuminate an entire city and who Regina found herself wanting to hate only to fail time and again.

Emma had been charming, had been amazing, had been fantastic ever since she had come to pick Killian up and for a moment Regina had regretted that she was probably in the scam too because if not she would have probably asked the woman to take a drink at any other given situation without thinking first on all the possible outcomes of her words. Of course, since that was really everything that was behind the entire scheme, she was forced to invite the blonde to a drink, drink that transformed itself into two and then three at some smarmy little bar Emma herself had lead Regina too, the barwoman seeming to know the blonde beauty Regina found herself trying not to stare at, or even been talk to.

But that, too, was futile, and so soon enough Regina found herself talking and smiling, even if carefully, to the blonde in front of her until she regretted and hated her for not being anything more but a part of some twisted idea she knew that it was already going to bite her ass the second she looked away.

“You have the brain, little sister” Zelena would have said. “But you lack the ruthlessness.”

And perhaps that was true but Emma looked her part and she was sweet and gentle and Regina found herself wanting to kiss the blonde, or to not kiss her at all, to show Killian a lesson -and her mother for that matter-

At the end it didn’t matter though since it was Emma who kissed her on the cheek with one last final whisper curling on her ear and her number written on a piece of paper she very much tucked on her right hand.

“Once you’ve kicked his ass call me, I will kick him twice for you then.”

But that’s another story.


End file.
